Tang Dynasty
九月九日忆山东兄弟
独在异乡为异客，
每逢佳节倍思亲。
遥知兄弟登高处，
遍插茱萸少一人。
Translation
Alone in a foreign place, I am a stranger far from home; whenever a festival comes, I miss my family all the more. From afar I imagine my brothers climbing the heights on the Double Ninth Day, each wearing sprigs of zhuyu, with one person missing among them.
Analysis
Written when Wang Wei was young, this poem has become one of the most enduring Chinese poems about homesickness. Its emotional force comes from its plainness. The opening repeats the sense of foreignness: the poet is not only in another place but also a stranger there. The famous second line deepens the feeling by placing it within the rhythm of festivals, moments that usually gather family together. In the final couplet, the poet turns away from himself and imagines his brothers performing the Double Ninth custom of climbing heights and wearing zhuyu. The phrase “one person missing” is the poem’s emotional center. The poet’s absence is felt not as a complaint, but as an empty space within a family scene.
About the Author
Wang Wei was one of the great poets of the High Tang, also known as a painter and musician. His courtesy name was Mojie, and later readers often called him the “Poet Buddha” for the quiet, contemplative quality of his verse. He is especially celebrated for landscape and pastoral poetry, but his poems of parting, longing, and family feeling are equally powerful. “Thinking of My Brothers East of the Mountains on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month,” written in his youth, already shows his gift for expressing deep emotion with clarity and restraint.